


All is Fair in Love and War

by DeanBean



Category: Strange Magic (2014), Strange Magic (2015)
Genre: Disney, F/M, George Lucas - Freeform, Lucasfilms, Strange Magic, butterfly bog
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-06
Updated: 2015-02-05
Packaged: 2018-03-10 17:47:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3298652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeanBean/pseuds/DeanBean
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Based just after the events in the film.<br/>The love shared between Princess Marrianne and the Bog King falls out of the spotlight as tension grows between the Summer and Winter courts... But as leaders of their own Kingdom's their time together is slowly taken away.<br/>Until light and dark merge together once more to fight the mysterious frost that has settled over the land.</p>
            </blockquote>





	All is Fair in Love and War

_Here comes the heat before we meet a little bit closer  
Here comes the spark before the dark, come a little closer_

The sun glimmered softly through the scrap of cloth that Marianne had tied around her eyes. The tips of her ears twitched slightly, honing in on any sound, any minor gust of wind of rustle of leaves that she could pick up on. She lifted the stick she was fighting with, feeling the weight of it in her right hand carefully. It was thinner than her sword had been. It was lighter, more fragile and definitely less cool looking, but it was all she could work with since she lost her blade in the dark forest.

With a sigh, she tossed the stick to her left hand and waved the point through the air. “Come on guys, I’m not getting any younger here.” Then she heard it. A twang of string, a woosh of air, and she smacked the seed her handmaidens had flung at her out of the air. “Oh, good one.” A smirk settled onto her lips and she braced herself, steadying the beating of her wings and listening for their next move. 

Seeds came flying, left right, center, from behind her and in front. This had been their daily practice routine for a while now. She wanted to get better every time, but her tiny helpers could only do so much. Not many Fairies in the kingdom were too eager to spar with a girl. Let alone a girl as valuable to them as Marianne. This never stopped the handmaidens from aiming at her head when she started to doze off from the repetitiveness of their exercise, however. 

It had been a long, lazy day at the castle. Her father had been trapped in a council meeting, then a strategy meeting and now he was in his study, pouring over the same old maps and books that he’d been diving into for as long as Marianne could remember. Dawn was somewhere getting into trouble with Sunny, who was basically attached to her at the hip… ankle… maybe just loosely hooked onto her knee. Basically the two of them were always breathing the same air and the thought alone made Marianne’s skin crawl. 

She needed her alone time. She liked being alone. It gave her more time to fight, more time to plan, more time to brood over her own corner of the castle which the servants had learned to avoid. But there was only so long someone could mope around before they got a little bored. A little antsy. 

After a while, she’d fallen into a steady rhythm, turning around to get better angles on the seeds flying at her from all angles, making believe that the seeds were the heads of her enemies or bombs or something a little more cool than dried up seeds that would turn into berries one day. One projectile was the throat of some sort of vicious creature, another was the stomach of a vile beast. You know, stuff she’d never be able to deal with because of her “noble status.” She rolled her eyes under the cloth and missed hitting one of the seeds that was aimed at the back of her knee. 

“Damn it!” she cursed. Those handmaidens could really pack a punch when they wanted to. She rubbed at the spot where she’d been hit with a hiss. The little fairies tittered to themselves in satisfaction and among their high pitched noise she could hear another sort of chuckle. A deeper, scratchier one. 

In a hurry, she whipped the mask off her face. “Oh.” Blood rushed to her cheeks and she could feel it which just made her more embarrassed which just caused even more blood to rush. Bog sat below her on a large piece of tree bark, shielding his eyes against the setting sun with a sticky sweet smirk plastered across his face.

“You need to work on your form.” He commented as she sank to the ground, favoring the knee that was most likely going to have a bruise by morning. 

It took everything Marianne had not to just cross her arms and stick her tongue out at him like a dissatisfied 4 year old. “Not much work you can do by just swinging around a stupid stick.” She tossed the piece of wood she was holding onto the ground and stared pointedly at the staff resting lightly against his seat. He pressed a hand over the center of his chest, like her words were aimed at his heart, though his smile stayed in place. She couldn’t help but to grin as well. “What are you doing here?” She made her way across the small patch of ground to sit beside him, their knees barely grazing. 

She wondered if he felt the spark that she did when they were near each other. It was like the calm before a big storm with rain drops the size of houses. Energy buzzed through her whole body that was ten times stronger than the rush she got from tussling with lizards or chasing Dawn around the kingdom. From what she understood, this was love. This was what the potions were for. What wars were fought over. What people died for. She understood it now, even if Bog was a little shy… emotionally stunted… whatever she could call it. 

“I was in a meeting with the king and his council.” He explained, looking intently at his hand, fingers curled in as if to examine his fingernails like he actually had them. 

“Wait, what?” she jumped up, blood suddenly boiling for another reason. She was royalty. Actually royalty that was a part of this kingdom and the King from a _completely different_ kingdom was allowed to have meetings with the council and her father? It wasn’t fair! 

“Whoa, girl.” Bog lifted his hands in front of his face in mock defense.

“I’m not some steed.” Marianne crossed her arms, her wings twitching agitatedly at her sides. “What’s so important that he can talk _you_ about it but I don’t get to know? It’s like I’m beetle dung when it comes to things like this. This is _my_ damn kingdom!” She glared at Bog, whose smirk had returned like she was some spectacle. Some show that was being put on just for him. That just made her all the more angry. “Oh, no. You aren’t just going to look at me. Out of everyone in this whole court I expect you of all people to let me know what’s going on. I’m not just some _girl_ -“ 

“There’s been some suspicious activity in the Winter Court.” Bog stated, his back lengthening and straitening like he was making a formal announcement. “As much as it displeases me to admit, the borders are open now. The King, your father, sent a poor little elf creature to request my presence to discuss the matter. Apparently, his business is my business and those are his own words. I hope that creeps you out because it creeps me out. And I’m the epitome of creepy. It takes a lot.” 

“Oh.” Marianne dropped her arms. She really needed to think of another filler word to use other than a simple ‘Oh.’ Sometimes she forgot about the Winter court. Her kingdom, and Bog’s as well resided in the Summer court. She knew nothing but warm days, sunshine on her face and the shade of leaves to keep cool after the humidity of a shower or when the sun beat down through the leaves of the trees a little too hard. But her educators had taught her of the constant cold and wind of the neighboring court. Winter was said to be desolate, deadly and dangerous; the three D’s that her father used to describe everything he didn’t want her meddling in. It was common knowledge that the Winter court was where Summer sent it’s exiles, and if anyone happened to venture into their freezing land, there was no coming back. She shivered at the thought, hair rising on her arms. “Creepy.” 

“You’re telling me.” He retorted, grabbing his staff and leaning against it to pull himself up from his seat. “He wanted me to call him ‘father-in-law’.” 

New knots formed in Marianne’s stomach that had nothing to do with the Winter court and she gagged. “He didn’t.” 

“Aye, he did.” He was smiling now. 

“You’re just messing with me.” She grinned, reaching up to push on his shoulder. 

“No, really. He wanted me to accompany him on a golfing trip.” 

“Gross.” 

“Whatever the hell golfing is.” 

“I know, right?” Marianne giggled. 

“Then he wanted to talk about your virtue and-“ Marianne started gagging again and Bog started laughing, pulling her closer to him. “I had to draw the line there.” He brushed a piece of hair back that had fallen down on her forehead, the roughness of his pointed fingertips just barely grazing the skin. He was at least 3 heads taller than her, maybe 3 and a half but it never felt like he was looking down at her. Her father, the Kingdom as a whole, even Sunny who was a third her size seemed to criticize and judge her like a child but Bog was different. Bog seemed to think of her as an equal. Equal competition, equal skill, equal wit… Equal partnership. 

Another shiver made its way up Marianne’s spine. “Well, I’m glad you were talking about serious business.” She joked, burying her head into the roughness of his chest. The armor he wore looked like it was rough and prickly like the bark of an old tree, but it was surprisingly smooth and pliant to the touch. Goblins made their armor from the remains of fallen leaves. They hardened them using resin, just like the Fairies did with fresh, still green plants. 

They stood there for a moment, wrapped in each other’s arms. Marianne pressed her ear to Bog’s chest. His heartbeat was slow, deliberate, like it was pacing itself for when it really mattered. Fairies had fast hearts like birds and mice and for every ten beats of Marianne’s heart, Bog’s beat once, keeping slow time. She loved how different they were so much that it was terrifying. Her heart sped up even more but she just held on tighter. This was a new feeling, a new experience. She lived for moments like this. 

“I almost forgot.” He said, breaking their silence. He’d grown warm in her arms and Marianne wondered if he was blushing. It was hard to tell through skin as tough as his. “I have something for you.”

**Author's Note:**

> Song from the title: Closer by Tegan and Sara  
> The amount of times I've seen this movie already is probably too high for me to admit. I just don't understand why no one ever gave it a chance!   
> Hope you guys like it! All the action will start soon I promise


End file.
